“Don’t bury yourself in your shoes, always go beyond yourself.”
Don Oreste Benzi has been defined in so many ways: priest of the least, parish priest with the lisa cassock, martyr of charity, the saint of the humble.
Pope Benedict XVI remembered him as a “tireless apostle of charity.”
An extraordinary man who was able to change the time he inhabited, to shake hearts and minds, to bring about a cultural and social revolution wherever he arrived.
The year 2025 is the centenary year of his birth.
To remember him today is to return to affirming-as he said-that “it is possible to change history and rebuild it,” proposing his idea of a “society of the free,” one that brings the person back to the center, one that moves forward by following in the footsteps of the last, inclusive, and one that makes diversity its strength.
So many are the ways of holiness that the Church’s bimillennial history has made us admire. But there is no doubt that the one traveled by Fr. Orestes has the extraordinary. His, in fact, is one of the most lucid examples of how it is possible to advance, in a conjoint way, contemplative life and active engagement in civitas. As Augustine of Hippo had already made clear, it is the demands of charity that require the contemplative to attend to the active life. This is why Fr. Orestes’ testimony of life constitutes, even for today, a true model of behavior
Stefano Zamagni
Chairman of the National Committee
CENTENNIAL EVENTS
A series of initiatives will be held throughout the year throughout Italy to commemorate the priest with the lisa cassock and will culminate in 2025 on the centenary of Don Oreste Benzi’s birth (Sept. 7, 1925).
CONTACTS
Centennial Secretariat
Corso Giovanni XXIII 8a
47921 Rimini
100@donorestebenzi.it
Press Office
Luca Luccitelli – Cell. 340 5475343
Marco Tassinari – Cell. 328 1187801
ufficiostampa@apg23.org
